Nellie Leland School for Crippled Children
Detroit Barracks: 1830 to 1866

1395 Antitem near the Mies van de Rohe Historic District
and downtown Detroit

Henry Leland—the Detroit inventor,
engineer and entrepreneur—played a key role in the early automobile
industry. He founded the Cadillac, the Leland, and the Lincoln automotive
firms, played
a role in the development of Oldsmobile, and led the nation’s efforts
during World War I to design and mass produce an effective aircraft engine.
Nellie Leland was, I believe, the wife of Henry Leland. As was common among
the spouses of very rich men in that age, she served on the boards of several
Detroit area charitable organizations. She focused her efforts upon the tremendous
problems of the tubercular poor. In that era, there were no sulfa drugs
to
treat tuberculosis, and the urban living conditions of new migrants and the
impoverished exposed them to the risk of this highly common and contagious
disease. Nellie Leland also promoted the scientific study of the treatment
and cure of tuberculosis.

Leland encouraged Detroit school officials
to build a school that could serve the special needs of physically handicapped
children. The Americans for Disability Act did not become a law until 1990,
so local schools at the turn of the Twentieth Century had no obligation
to
provide an education to handicapped children or to those who did not speak
English. Parochial schools often taught their classes in the language
of the
immigrants. The Leland School that you see in the photograph was innovative
in its structural features that allowed handicapped children to learn.
There
were ramps, for example, for those bound to wheelchairs and the school you
see was among the first in Detroit to have an elevator.

Nellie Leland died in 1910, but her husband,
in 1912, built and operated the first open-air school in Detroit for children
in the earliest stages of their suffering from tuberculosis. This Detroit
school was named for Nellie Leland, but the name was transferred to the
building
you see when it was completed.

From 1830 to 1866, the United States military
had a barracks on this site. This was an induction center for those serving
in the Civil War. Lieutenant Ulysses S. Grant had an office in these barracks
from 1849 through 1851.

Leland School was operated by the Detroit
School Board until 1981. In the mid-1980s it was sold to Stroh’s
Properties, but it was later purchased by Detroit developer and entrepreneur,
Joel Landry.
He originally planned to renovate this building for use as a charter school
after the state legislature—in 1994—approved the creation
of such educational institutions. With the boom in employment near downtown
Detroit
and the successful development of many downtown residences, plans were changed.
The building was converted into condominiums ranging from 1,200 to 2,100
square
feet. They feature hardwood oak floors, slate bathrooms, marble countertops,
complemented with the original wood doors from the schools. To encourage
such
developments, the municipal government provides ten-year property tax abatement.

Architects: Unknown to me
Architectural Style: Elementary school construction of the era
Date of Completion: 1918
City of Detroit Local Historic District: Not Listed
State of Michigan Registry of Historic Sites: Not Listed
National Registry of Historic Sites: Listed: February 14, 2002
Use in 2004: Condominiums
Photo: Ren Farley; January 2004